An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
As part of a critical assessement of a PolitiFact fact check, we sent an email to PolitiFact Editor Angie Drobnic Holan and PolitiFact Executive Director Aaron Sharockman. If you wonder why I write to you less frequently these days, it is because trying to communicate errors to PolitiFact via email counts as one of the least transparent processes one could…
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We reached out to the Congressional Budget Office to try to get clarification on its report on the 10-year budgetary effect of CHIP reauthorization. A PolitiFact fact check brought to my attention an apparent discrepancy in CBO’s report on the budget effects of extending the CHIP program for 10 years. The text of the report says CHIP saves money because services…
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Email correspondence between Zebra Fact Check and the Raw Story corrections team on January 3, 2017 : Dear RawStory corrections team, Headline: Trump supporters far more likely to read and share ‘fake news’ on social media: study Story (bold emphasis added): They’re still measuring the degree to which fake news impacted the 2016 election, however, this study only measured how…
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Sent Jan. 21, 2017: Dear Jon Greenberg, Angie Drobnic Holan, The fact check you published on Jan. 15, 2017 giving Rand Paul a “Half True” for his claim about Medicaid’s share of ACA coverage contains a major mathematical flaw.The summary of the fact check pulls together the pieces, which do not fit together as your article suggests: Paul said the…
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This page presents the best evidence from a Southern Poverty Law Center survey report alleging (in part) an increase in bullying and harassment, targeting immigrants and Muslims. We assert fair use as our justification for presenting this material from that report, as it supplements an original work critical of the SPLC report and media claims stemming from that report. Find…
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Email message to PolitiFact’s Lauren Carroll concerning her Aug. 27, 2016 appearance on MSNBC Live. Sent Sept. 4, 2016. Dear Lauren Carroll, (cc Angie Drobnic Holan) I’m a fact checking journalist, and I’m preparing a fact check of claims you made about the “Trump Effect” on MSNBC on Aug. 27, 2016. I’m focusing primarily on the following claim, though the…
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Aug. 28, 2016 email message addressed to the PolitiFact writer/editor team of Lauren Carroll and Aaron Sharockman Dear Lauren Carroll, Aaron Sharockman, Your fact check of Hillary Clinton’s claim about the rise of bullying in our schools was filled with problems, but there’s one that I expect you ought to care deeply about, so I’m writing to point it out….
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Aug. 29, 2016 email from Zebra Fact Check The fact-checking website PolitiFact recently published a fact check that was heavily reliant on a survey published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact check noted that the survey had too many methodological problems to count as solid scientific evidence, yet the story’s conclusion made it appear that each of you,…
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Aug. 29, 2016 email from Zebra Fact Check (addressed to Sheri Bauman, Dorothy Espelage, and Jan Urbanski): The fact-checking website PolitiFact recently published a fact check that was heavily reliant on a survey published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The fact check noted that the survey had too many methodological problems to count as solid scientific evidence, yet the…
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We sent the following message to Professor Darius Rejali on May 25, 2016. Dear Professor Darius Rejali, I’m a fact-checking journalist working on the issue of torture. Specifically, whether torture works. I’m writing to you because PolitiFact has cited statements from you saying that torturers do not know when tortured prisoners are telling the truth (PolitiFact uses that as an…
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